Arch sizing

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bpratt

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Mar 31, 2019
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Jimboomba, Queensland
First year to play with pixel lighting and looking at putting up some in front of my place.

However I'm not sure on the sizing of the arch. I've read a lot use a 2.5m section of air seeder tubing, but I'm thinking that might look a bit small on my block.

Just as background, I have a 36m frontage, of which the driveway is about half way along it. My house is then around 100m from the road, which this year will simply be lit up with dumb leds from last year.

I'm currently considering 4m lengths of air seeder tubing with 80 pixels per length, which perhaps next year I'll add an extra arch or two inside those arches.

Considering the size/shape of my block, I'm seeking your opinions as to the 4m size of the arches, perhaps being too large and that may be more 2.5m arches would be better or worse ?

I guess I'm really second guessing myself.. again ! :)
 
It really is a personal preference. A lot, well me, decide on arch size by string size. So if I am using half of a 5m strip, then that is 2.5m arch. So I can get 6 arch's from 3 strips. But in saying that, I added new pixel arches to the roof last year and just worked out the length of roof then divided my the number of arch's I wanted to add and bent them to a rough shape and cut them that size, so they are 3 meters each.
Go with whatever makes you happy :)
 
thanks Scamper, it really is a personal preference, but wanted to get an idea of how others sized their arches, particulary as most people are on normal residential blocks, as in a ratio of width of block to the distance from the house, to the size of the arch. :)

I'll be using bullet or square pixels rather than strips with mine, drilled in to the back side of the air seeder tube, so I can add inner arches next year.
 
I have 4x arches that can be seen here: https://auschristmaslighting.com/media/evans-central-2018-behind-the-scenes-part-1.886/
My tubing is actually 2.6m in length with 2.5m of strip inside. The extra length is to allow for the conduit feet at the ends so they don't cover any LEDs.
My arches are 2.1m foot to foot and 800mm apart if that helps (I know this because my OCD made me write it down so I can place them exactly in the same spots each year!)
 
Thanks for the suggestions everyone, going to go for 3m length with pixels starting 100mm in from each end, giving me 56 pixels across each arch keeping to what appears to be the standard spacing of 50mm.

12mm spade bit to drill the holes in to it ? :)
 
bpratt said:
Thanks for the suggestions everyone, going to go for 3m length with pixels starting 100mm in from each end, giving me 56 pixels across each arch keeping to what appears to be the standard spacing of 50mm.

12mm spade bit to drill the holes in to it ? :)
Click to expand...

I use a stepped drill bit. Pretty cheap on e-bay if you have the time to wait, or you can get from any good hardware store if you want it sooner. .
I found a spade bit ripped/shattered what I was drilling.
A twist bit tended to shatter pvc also, but what I was drilling frequently caught and spun out or it just pulled the drilled product straight up the brill bit.
 
Now back in to second guessing everything again. :)

Seems like arches still need to be done with pixel strips, as regular pixels creating a light hot spot.

Watching Jamesski's video on youtube seems to show hot spotting, whereas strips don't show that because I guess the light is much further away from the outside of the tubing.
 
Matter of personal choice, whatever YOU are happy with the look of. I don't want to start the node vs strip debate here, but IMO I like the look of strip inside the tubing better than seeing all the nodes and wires, but that's just what I like the look of.
 
Thanks Graham, I'm not overly fussed about the exposed wires in leaping arches, as they're going to be about 8m from the road, and being night time not quite as visible, but the look of the lights.... I think many of us feel that leaping arches are supposed to glow, rather than spot.

Speaking to DarylC on zoom last night, and he's thinking more pixels per metre in strip (60 rather than 30/metre) would look even better.

Saw a picture of his, and if the strip isn't sitting flat inside the seeder tube, you can see the led's spotting.
 
yeah my strip in my arches is 30p/m but I'm fine with that. 3x LEDs per pixel still gives it enough of a dispersed light
 
Question on using strip in arches... Does anyone use it without the silicone sleeve? I've got enough strip left over from last year to use in my new arches but need to cut them and re-add pigtails at the right length. I'm ok with that, but the problem is trying to reinsert the strip in to a new silicone sleeve. I find it impossible. Anyone use the strip naked? or is it too risky?
...or I'll put all the strip in the bin and use bullets...
 
I was wondering the same DarrenR .... if your strips are still safely inside the air seeder tube, do they need to be in the silicon sleeve ?
 
IN theory rain shouldn't get inside the tubing thanks to gravity. However, being in the sun during the day i'm not sure if condensation is something to be considered?
 
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